Winter citrus is at its finest, and most welcome, right about now. And when you add salty, briny olives -- well, that's practically a dance party. For this contest, pair them in any way you like, just make sure that both co-starring ingredients shine through mightily.
These are not your usual contests. We have a slightly nutty system but it works. Together, the Food52 community has created two cookbooks this way -- there’s no stopping us now. Read about it
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The roster of ingredients includes: cilantro, lemon, green olives, pecorino, tomato, smoked paprika, cinnamon, onion, flour, white wine, fennel and garlic.
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Prepping the veggies.
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You dredge the chicken pieces in flour mixed with pecorino, which gives the browned chicken a lovely crisp crust.
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Our trusted flour measuring technique: the dump and smooth.
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We use whole lemon quarters, but if yours have a lot of pith, you may want to use just the juice.
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Notice our matching outfits? Unplanned.
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A little smoked paprika goes into the dredging mixture, and then more goes into the sauce.
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Amanda is always generous with the ground pepper, which the rest of us love!
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See the shreds of pecorino in there? They're about to work their magic on the chicken.
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Look at that gorgeous brown skin!
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The lemons, onion, fennel, olives and the rest of the paprika go into the pot to soften and meld.
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An occasional stir helps the veggies cook down more evenly.
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And in about 10 minutes, they look like this!
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A bit of flour to thicken the sauce a little...
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Then we added the tomatoes and white wine, followed by the lemon zest. We recommend adding a healthy pinch or two of salt at this point, but taste first!
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Amanda just said something funny. Little devil.
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The lineup: green olives, onion, butternut squash, lamb shoulder, garlic, prunes, lemon zest, paprika (we used sweet), cinnamon, coriander, cumin and turmeric.
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We left this beautiful bunch of parsley not only out of the ingredient shot, but out of the final dish as well. D'oh!
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Unbundling the lamb shoulder to cube it.
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We trimmed some of the fat, but not all, for more flavor.
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We cut our squash into 3/4-inch cubes. If you're opposed to the squash starting to fall apart as it stews, you might want to go for slightly bigger cubes. We didn't mind!
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Again, the sadly neglected parsley makes an appearance.
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The spice mixture for the lamb.
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Amanda tosses the lamb with the spices -- it's a nice, healthy coating.
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We kept the heat moderate, as we didn't want the spices to burn. Over a medium flame, the lamb browned nicely and fairly quickly.
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Just chillin'.
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You're just looking for a nice brown crust.
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You just missed a very exciting moment: Amanda swept all of the sliced onion and garlic from the counter into the hot pan, in one fell swoop.
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After the onions have softened, the lamb goes back into the pan with the chicken stock.
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Then the beautiful squash...
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Followed by the prunes, olives and lemon zest.
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Then, you just stir everything together, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes, and that's it!
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